This invention relates to an adhesive bra and, in particular, to an adhesive bra that provides support and enhancement for a user's breasts.
It is desirable in the selection of undergarments to have a bra which provides both support and enhancement to the shape of the user's breasts. It is also desirable to have a bra which would not become obviously visible when the user wears revealing or low-cut clothing.
Adhesive bras are known in the art and are particularly useful for wearing with strapless and/or backless garments. An example of an adhesive bra is disclosed in a commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. D485,965. The '965 patent shows an adhesive bra including two bra elements, each element having an elongated narrow top portion and an enlarged bottom portion when viewed from the front or the back, and being planar in shape with a relatively uniform thickness throughout, when viewed from the top, bottom or side.
Each bra element of the adhesive bra of the '965 patent can be used to support a user's breast by adhering the enlarged bottom portion to the breast itself, and then pulling upward and adhering the elongated top portion to the user's body above the breast. In this way, the breast is pulled upward and held to provide the desired support. The thin uniform configuration of the bra element, however, does not enhance the size or shape appearance of the user's breast.
Other types of bra elements for providing such enhancement are known such as, for example, breast forms or bra cups which use materials such as foam or silicone gel to realize enhanced breast size and shape. U.S. Pat. No. 6,780,081 discloses a backless, strapless adhesive bra for enhancing a user's breasts having two breast cups each made from a plurality of layers including two fabric layers with foam material disposed there between and an interior thermoplastic film layer adjoined to one of the fabric layers. In the '081 patent the bra cups of the bra are joined with one another by a connector which may be adjusted so as to enhance breast cleavage of the user. This patent also teaches the use of a pull-up device attached to the lateral end of the top edge of each bra cup. The pull-up device is attachable to the user's skin by an adhesive so as to realize push up enhancement for the user's breast.
Another bra which uses breast forms and a connector therebetween is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,758,720. In this patent, one form of the breast forms uses a silicone material encased by a thermoplastic film material and having an adhesive layer on the interior surface of the breast form. U.S. Pat. No. 6,857,932 also discloses this type of breast form in which a fabric layer is placed over the thermoplastic film layers.
While the adhesive bras of the aforesaid patents enhance the shape of the user's breasts and create cleavage, these bras typically lack sufficient support for the user's breasts. In particular, these bras are worn by adhering the bra cups or forms on top of the user's breasts so that the breasts act as a “shelf” to support the bra elements and by adjusting the connector to create cleavage and squeezing action to help secure the cups to the user's body. Because proper use of these silicone or foam bras requires that the breasts provide the support for the bra elements, such bras cannot be used by women with flaccid or pancake-shaped breasts. Moreover, because these bras require the use of a center connector between the bra elements, the bras cannot be used with garments that have a deep-plunging neckline without revealing the bra connector.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an adhesive bra that provides support for the user's breasts while enhancing the shape of the user's breasts.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an adhesive bra which provides sufficient support to and re-shapes flaccid breasts.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an adhesive bra which does not require a connector and does not become visible when worn under garments with deep plunging necklines.